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Projects
European Social Forum 2006 in Athens, Greece
4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of May 2006
The 4th European Social Forum took place in Athens-Greece on the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of May 2006. The European Social Forum is, alongside Genoa and Seattle, one of the major events of the movement against neoliberal globalization and war, deregulation of labour and poverty, climate change and environmental destruction, violation of democratic rights and sexism, racism and the threat of the far right. Tens of thousands of activists participated in the first, second and third European Social Forums which took place in Florence (2002), Paris (2003) and London (2004).
European Social Forum, Athens, May 2006:
Two things set this ESF in Athens apart from each of its three predecessors – and indeed almost all large international gatherings nowadays. First, it takes place on one site only rather than being spread between lots of different venues across the host city. This serves to concentrate the energy and to avoid the sad experience for many of travelling for hours in fruitless pursuit of never-to-be- found venues.
I got so fed up of long and tiring wild goose chases at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg that, by the end, I was often choosing to stay home with newspapers and the radio. Consistently, the BBC was giving me more information on what was going on up the road than I could ever have discovered by going there – even if I had been able to find where ‘there’ was! Here, the whole event is happening in a large converted aircraft hanger at the former airport. The mobile telephone that I have been persuaded to carry is gloriously redundant. There are large crowds of people – especially in the evenings when workplaces and schools close – perhaps no larger than at previous ESFs but it feels that way due to the concentrating effect of the single venue.
Secondly, this seems to be much less a gathering of the tribes making up the global justice rainbow alliance than an old-fashioned rally of the hard left. The flavour feels substantially more red than green. On the banners and posters, clenched fists, hammers and sickles abound.
T-shirts bear profiles of Stalin,Lenin and Che Guevara. The language is that of ’opposing’, ‘resisting’ and ‘smashing’. Gangs of young people carrying red flags pass through the meeting hall chanting anti-imperialist slogans.
Other than GEN-Europe, there are relatively few environmental, civil rights or global justice organisations represented. The exhibition hall is dominated by causes proclaiming their lineages as socialist, communist and/or Marxist- Leninist. All this ultra-left activity may be due to Greece’s distinctive history, having laboured under a military dictatorship until 1974. Nonetheless, it still comes as something of a shock. Once again, GEN’s distinctive contribution amidst all the theorising and grand proclamations is to offer models based on the hard and joyful work of building on the ground. There is a huge appetite for what we have to offer here. Our stand is very well located and I would guess that it among the most popular and frequented at the entire exhibition. Rare indeed have been the moments during three days when there was not a line of people waiting to talk with us. (I am here, by the way, with Zisula, a Greek woman who lives at ZEGG, her sister Irini and other friends of theirs from Athens.)
Among the highlights was a discussion I had with a young man from Europe
Youth for Action, Frodo Kempf. This is a youth organisation that appears to be
active on various fronts and that NextGEN could gain much from getting closer
to. It runs an annual 2-week gathering – Ekotopia – effectively, a temporary
ecovillage where youth from across Europe meet, network and celebrate. The
next camp will be in Slovakia in August and GEN-Europe will provide financial
assistance to help some of the folk from NextGEN to be there. YFA is also
involved in several ‘arts and activism’ activities in various parts of Europe. Check
them out at www.eyfa.org
We hosted three workshops on Friday. One in the morning on ecovillages internationally that I (Jonathan) facilitated. A second in the afternoon was addressed by Zisula on ZEGG.
The third in the evening was a meeting to discuss the creation of ecovillages in Greece. These gatherings were never less than full (the room had a capacity of around 50) and the evening session had people wanting to participate spilling out into the corridor.
This has been among the most valuable and enjoyable networking gatherings at which I have represented GEN. Visitors were open and enthusiastic, hungry for information. Many – more than I can remember at any similar event elsewhere – already had some knowledge of ecovillages and keen to be involved in creating communities in Greece. There was also a strong media presence: I gave three television interviews.
The major challenge, however, remains that of providing useful advice to would-be ecovillagers. With land prices high and rising pretty much across Europe and with ever tighter planning regulations, it is becoming ever more difficult to get new initiatives off the ground. A key task lying before us now is to identify and document good practice in the creation of communities so that new would-be ecovillagers have solid shoulders to stand on.
Jonathan
